Category Archives: Work & careers

Social psychologist Robert Cialdini helped Obama in the 2012 election. Influence, he says, can come down to the right word in the right place

Despite the turmoil unleashed by his administration, Donald Trump voters remain committed to their president, which is quite the conundrum for a Democratic party debating how to bounce back in 2020.

In previous elections, the Democrats have sought the help of social psychologist Robert Cialdini. A professor at Arizona State University who pioneered the study of persuasion, Cialdini was part of a team of behavioural scientists that helped propel Obama to victory in 2012. He was also consulted in the early stages of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, though, he points out, he was much less involved in that race. Clinton’s major disadvantage, he believes, was that she was a continuity candidate in a change election.

Have you got a work-related problem? In a new series we invite you to send in a short description of your predicament – so that other readers can offer solutions

I work on projects with a high profile and lots of responsibility in the public sector, and my directors say I’m doing a good job. Yet I am consistently micro-managed and undermined by my line manager, who to everyone else seems friendly, affable, super-enthusiastic and cheerful – yet when she speaks to me there is unease, second-guessing and challenge. In my appraisal we celebrated very few successes (and I know I’ve had a few) and went over a series of things I needed to work on, none of which had ever come up in a supervision. I came out deflated and uninspired, despite a good year’s work. Short of leaving a job and a project that could send my career rocketing, how do I address her micro-managing and second-guessing every step I take – which as a consequence has me questioning my ability?

• When leaving a message on this page, please be sensitive to the fact that you are responding to a real person in the grip of a real-life dilemma, who wrote to Working It Out asking for help, and may well view your comments here.

One version of the national story we tell ourselves is that postwar migrants, particularly people of colour from the “new commonwealth”, helped support our public services, notably the National Health Service and London transport. There is something poetic in the fact that the first NHS hospital was opened within months of the arrival of Empire Windrush; yet something almost tragic that, seven decades later, their grandchildren are experiencing racial inequality at work.

President introduces 52-hour work week to country that has among the longest hours in the developing world

Employees in one of the most overworked countries in Asia are about the get a break after South Korea passed a bill to reduce the typical work week in an effort to improve quality of life and boost employment.

South Korea’s National Assembly overwhelmingly passed the law which cut the maximum weekly work hours to 52, down from 68. The law comes into force in July and will apply to large companies before being rolled out to smaller businesses.

Many people understand that they should network, but at the same time hate the idea of it. It’s easy to think of networking as a process of having to talk to complete strangers, schmoozing and pretending to be something you’re not. But many individuals go from not feeling like they can manage it to doing it very well indeed.

Keep forgetting what’s on your to-do list? A mnemonic champion has some tips for improving your ability to remember facts and faces

Our smart devices have become extensions of ourselves in a way that allows us to do almost anything with ease — store contact information, get answers to questions, organise calendars and manage our to-do lists. But, no matter how advanced technology gets, it is not a substitute for our memory.

A growing number of cafes are ditching wifi and outlawing computers in an attempt to bring back old-fashioned hospitality – and increase their revenue

The sign on the door could not be clearer: “This is a laptop-free zone.” The message is underscored by a cartoon computer with a sad face – and another sign indicating there is no wifi inside.

Welcome to Dough Lover, the latest addition to Brighton’s ever-expanding roster of coffee shops – and the most upfront example yet of the growing pushback in this tech-loving city against the legion of freelance workers (me included) who much prefer to work in cafes than in their own front rooms.

Don’t attempt to have your mind on work and children at the same time, says Sharmadean Reid

When my son, Roman, was born, I was a stylist, and I’d take him to meetings in a sling, schedule my work around his naps, and just carry on. When he was tiny, this was pretty easy; as he got older, it became less so. So my first piece of advice is don’t attempt to have your mind on work and children at the same time: it soon gets tough.

Instead, I decided to carve out dedicated family time and work time, and I now rule my life by a fairly tight calendar. If I am working from home and Roman wants me to play, I’ll explain that I need 10 more minutes, then the laptop is closed and he has my full attention.

It’s untenable to let salaried work define us. In the future, what we do for society unpaid should be at least as important

Why bother designing robots when you can reduce human beings to machines? Last week, Amazon acquired a patent for a wristband that can track the hand movements of workers. If this technology is developed, it could grant companies almost total control over their workforce.